What's the maximum kW your DNO allows you to export? (U.K. only question)

[Ron-ski]

@Gray17 Export rates will vary slightly by region, but you should really have all of the different tariff's available as per anyone with an MCS cert. Price is not determined by local infrastructure, just you export power, which the DNO will set.

It sounds like maybe some people at Octopus are a little confused, its a pretty niche scenario so many are probably not fully conversant with it. The standard Octopus SEG rate is 4.1p and sounds like they are quoting that.

 

[belgrano]

might be able to shed some light on the tunnel here, believe the 4p is for export only ie ; obtain power from another provider , but can have 15p export payment if you also have octopus as your power provider as well.
also top tip.... when you phone them be the sweetest person they have ever encountered...praise them as a company for their forward thinking, which i believe is true, and really thank them for their assistance.. go overboard.....
sounds a bit daft, and explain you wish to be placed on the trial as you believe you meet all the criteria. i doubt you will get signed up there and then, i did this and within a few days i had an invite, so it does work.
end of the day, the employees are just like us, and although i think you are right, my technique works the best...Even went as far as recommended the chap on the phone for his helpfullness to the company and he's contacted me saying if there's anything else I he can do for me like swopping plans in future to get in touch.

 

[belgrano]

I also had a complaint running at the same time with Octopus, regarding failure to grant my system "quid pro quo", with other MCS cert systems, because the rules are they are allowed to take on non MCS customers for export, but their own company rules go against it as they promote and sell systems. At least now Octopus quote a price directly for solar as they were just referring and taking a £500-2000 fee, depending on system size and not telling customer.
I knew they hate these complaints as the ombudsman levies a £500 fine on every one coming to them regardless of outcome. I changed the complaint to praise when accepted.
Octopus even suggested I buy a retrospective MCS cert which I know go for £500-£1000. However most companies wont bite, look for ones stopping trading and delisting for best price if req. Its also against MCS rules to do this and they can be struck off .

 

[SeaGal]

might be able to shed some light on the tunnel here, believe the 4p is for export only ie ; obtain power from another provider , but can have 15p export payment if you also have octopus as your power provider as well.

That was my understanding too ^^^^. Though Octopus also have a reduced export rate of 8p/kWh (called Octopus Lite) if you are on the Octopus 'Go' tariff as that offers extra low (c. 8p/kWh) overnight charge-up rate. Guess they don't want customers buying electricity to them at 8p and selling it back at 15p! See https://octopus.energy/export-tariffs/

 

[Gray17]

Afternoon Guys, your info is indeed valuable. I have spoken to Octopus directly, told them I've been with them a long while and very happy with their service, in fact just signed up for a new fixed tarriff with them.
But needed to know the criteria to be accepted on the export trial.
She appologised for not answering the questions and emails, then stated if i had the appropriate certificates and providing it met the requirements i should be accepted, but if. not would be refunded £100 of the £250.
She also promissed to send me written email confirmation of exactly what the export payments would be and also the relevant acceptance criteria.
Whilst i hope this is the case, it appears to me they deliberately use words like may, or should rather then will. It sounds too much like a get out if they want clause.
Like most people these days moneys tight, you dont want to waste £250 on a gamble, i want to ensure everything is as they need it to be to ensure its accepted inc certification. I rattled off what i had ie DNO approval, Nappitt electrical Cert, Building regs compliance Cert. Other then filling in the form and paying the £250 she confirmed nothing else required.
She also promised to send the info before close of play today.
So we shall see. Obv have no desire to upset them as no other trial options without MCS cert available at mo. But at the same time they should be upfront about their exact requirements, otherwise people could be paying the £150 admin fee for nothing!
Will keep you all posted

 

[SenileOldGit]

It's "more than" and "other than", not "then". How has all of the USA suddenly become incapable of learning basic American?

 

[Ron-ski]

It's "more than" and "other than", not "then". How has all of the USA suddenly become incapable of learning basic American?

Who's the grammar police actually telling off?

Are you sure it's not basic English

 

[Gray17]

Firstly theres no such thing as basic American. Whilst not wanting to upset anyone but The language is called English and the reason its called English is because we the English collonised all of the provinces and provided our language for all to use.
Yes America has their own slant on it now, as does Australia, Canada etc.
So if youre going to criticise someones written documents, at least get the name of the language your using correct! Or is that all part of the senility?
Think theres plenty more issues on here to keep everyone entertained without resorting to language mistakes.
Hope others agree too!

 

[Gray17]

Morning Guys, well finally got a written reply from Octopus, alas once again have failed to answer the basic questions i asked.
1. For a none MCS system to be accepted on your trial what is the criteria and certification necessary to ensure acceptance?
2. For a none MCS system thats been accepted on the trial what are the tarriffs open to me and their export tarriffs?
Seems pretty simple to me, but instead of answering all i get is a series of links sent to me, which just generalises the answers or raises yet further questions.
I'm not sure of the customer service infrastructure at Octopus, perhaps they genuinely cant (as dont know) then why not pass it up the chain to someone who does or wont answer the questions as they dont want you to know?
To me £250 is a large payment to make without knowing the criteria applied for acceptance or rejection.
I'm thinking that their may be an issue, but others have been accepted so Octopus must know the criteria needed?
I honestly cannot see any reason their refusing to answer unless its a scam! But know it cant be as others have been accepted?
Not sure how to proceed, whether to either just pay the money and take my chance, forget about it, or raise a complaint with them in the hope that compels them to reply properly.
Thoughts Guys?

 

[Ron-ski]

Not sure how to proceed, whether to either just pay the money and take my chance, forget about it, or raise a complaint with them in the hope that compels them to reply properly.
Thoughts Guys?

I would just pay the money, didn't you say you get half back if not accepted, so it's only a risk of £125? For that I think it's well worth a gamble, we know others have been accepted.

I would not raise a complaint, it could well cause the scheme to be scrapped, they already have pressure from MCS to stop it.

 

[SeaGal]

I concur with @Ron-ski - i.e. take the chance. I wonder if any requirements they raise may be either negotiable or retro-fixable during the acceptance stage anyway? IIRC it is £100 returned, so risk is £150.

 

[rpdom]

I'm not sure of the customer service infrastructure at Octopus, perhaps they genuinely cant (as dont know) then why not pass it up the chain to someone who does or wont answer the questions as they dont want you to know?

I've had some dealings with Octopus customer support. It really seems to depend on who answers your query. I've had contradictory replies from different people I've spoken to/emailed. One of them even confirmed this when I asked about switching to their EV "Go" tariff without having an EV. "Yes, you can do that. Just keep ringing until you get someone who will put you on it". It does seem that they expect the person taking the call to manage it without having to pass it up to anyone senior, even if they're not sure what they're doing.

 

[Gray17]

Whilst i fully appreciate your comments, i still fail to see why there should be any risk at all, if its a bonafied scheme which it is, then it must have procedural criteria in place already, ie someone must review each system to determine accepablability or not, in order to do this the must have written guidelines in place.
All im asking for is to tell me what those guidelines are! After all its not rocket science!!
To be honest i am not a gambler i take dead certs only. Dont think what im asking them is unreasonable at all.
Obv i could just pay the £250 and hope but then everyone else inc me is still in the dark. I honestly cant see the reason their holding the info back.

 

[Ron-ski]

It's not unreasonable, but I suspect most just don't know. I've had quite a few smart meter issues, and it very much depends who you get, both times I've had to make multiple calls to get the issue resolved even though the meters started working. They had to manually request the data, but what none of them realised this time was they needed to request the export data as well (they told they had ALL the data), it was only when I asked if they needed to request export data separately they said, oh that will be the problem, we've only requested import!

To me it looks like you've got two options, pay the £250 or give up. You've spent all that money installing solar, you took the gamble of not getting MCS, now all you need to do is risk £150, and if your work is good and you have the required electrical certificates, which I believe you said you had, then that risk is very small. Pretty much every thing in life has a risk, crossing the road, driving, flying etc.

it's just £150, the potential rewards are far higher, for years to come, it's my export payments that make my bills negative.

 

[Gray17]

Thanks for reply and that may well be what i have to do.
To be fair i incorrectly assumed you could pay to have MCS retrospectively once the install was complete. (should have done more research)
Why did i think that? Because theres suppliers on ebay etc advertising DIY solar kits and you get an MCS cert at the end, how they do that and advertise it when against the rules shows how little value the MCS actually has in real terms. However whilst all the big firms are fixated with this magic bit of paper theres not a lot can be done.

 

[SenileOldGit]

Who's the grammar police actually telling off?

Are you sure it's not basic English

I thought that if I put the correct term, "basic English", they might take offence. The reason so many people keep writing "more then" and "more that" is because OTHER people keep doing it, and nobody corrects them. This error, among many others, is endemic on the internet among Americans. Obviously a large percentage of American teachers are teaching these basic things incorrectly - it simply didn't occur twenty or thirty years ago. Gray17 is a classic example: "dont" and "wont", "their" instead of "they're", typical American mistakes, which are now the norm from America internet users.

 

[Gray17]

Think YOU'RE still missing the point, this is a Solar Forum NOT an 'English' or even 'American' language or grammer educating forum, what difference does it make to the question being raised?
Whether the grammer is correct or not is immaterial. If you dont like the way somethings written or the context it contains, just dont reply Simples!
Think Youre forgetting the very reasons Forums like this exist, Its so that members having issues or questions can raise these and the more knowledgeable membership can all assist in finding a relevant solution to that issue.
Please remember this before being ultra critical about something as minor as incorrect grammer, after all were NOT at school now!

 

[Ron-ski]

I thought that if I put the correct term, "basic English", they might take offence. The reason so many people keep writing "more then" and "more that" is because OTHER people keep doing it, and nobody corrects them. This error, among many others, is endemic on the internet among Americans. Obviously a large percentage of American teachers are teaching these basic things incorrectly - it simply didn't occur twenty or thirty years ago. Gray17 is a classic example: "dont" and "wont", "their" instead of "they're", typical American mistakes, which are now the norm from America internet users.

I make a load of mistakes in forum posts, in fact in anything I write, it's not because I was taught poorly although English and maths were my worst subjects at school about 40 years ago, it's just the way my brain works. I have to proof read what I write and often find mistakes, even after I've proof read several times I might spot a mistake after I've posted. If I'm short on time then there will be more mistakes.

Another factor you need to appreciate is a lot of people now use phones, or tablets (they didn't really exist 20 to 30 years ago, and the Internet barely did), I'm writing this on a tablet as I'm sat in bed having my early morning cup of tea. Anyway I digress, using a mobile device leads to more mistakes.

You didn't even specify in your post who you was correcting, so it seems you are not perfect either!

Anyway I'll let you get on with mission impossible (just do it somewhere else!), there is a whole world of grammar and spelling mistakes that need correcting, but if you really want to make a difference get a job as a teacher.

 

[rpdom]

Think YOU'RE still missing the point, this is a Solar Forum NOT an 'English' or even 'American' language or grammer educating forum, what difference does it make to the question being raised?

True, while the grammatical errors may be irksome, they should not detract from the meaning of the post.

More important are the correct use of Units (which there have already been posts about). Ok, for example, someone using "kwh" instead of "kWh" is incorrect, but in context it is pretty clear what is meant, but using, say kW instead of kWh is just plain wrong.

 

[MisterB1959]

Sh1t, I've just realised I've only got about nine years left in my second phase FiT scheme before I have to start chasing the best prices for selling back to the grid ...

 

[Brookydave]

17 kW NW area 3 phase farm. On Flux with 43kWhr battery.

 

[Ron-ski]

Sh1t, I've just realised I've only got about nine years left in my second phase FiT scheme before I have to start chasing the best prices for selling back to the grid ...

As you're on a FIT scheme I'm presuming you are in the UK, unless you use a substantial amount of your generation you'd highly likely be better off moving your FIT export payment to a export tariff that pays more. You get to keep the FIT generation payment, which is where the money is.

PS. I've got another 11 years on my FIT generation payments. 4kWp install 2015, another 11.5 kWp added last year and this year, so shed loads of export.

 

[MisterB1959]

As you're on a FIT scheme I'm presuming you are in the UK, unless you use a substantial amount of your generation you'd highly likely be better off moving your FIT export payment to a export tariff that pays more. You get to keep the FIT generation payment, which is where the money is.

PS. I've got another 11 years on my FIT generation payments. 4kWp install 2015, another 11.5 kWp added last year and this year, so shed loads of export.

I keep thinking about it but I'm doing ok on Octopus Go with British Gas as the FiT recipient. As we have overnight storage heaters the Octopus Go works well for us, we had to get an EV but the boss needed a new car, so we got a high mileage PHEV as she only does around 10 miles per day on average but it's got the option of running on petrol for longer journeys....

 

[SeaGal]

I thought that if I put the correct term, "basic English", they might take offence....
... Gray17 is a classic example: "dont" and "wont", "their" instead of "they're", typical American mistakes, which are now the norm from America internet users.

Hmmm... the last time I looked I thought I spotted Hull as being in the UK, not the USA

 

[Ron-ski]

Now that's what you call an epic fail, perhaps our English teacher needs to study geography.